University of Tokyo and AGC Asahi Glass Partner to Launch Social Cooperation Program: "Laboratory for Material and Life Sciences for Fusion of Fluorine and Organic Chemistry"

TOKYO, April 21, 2017– National University Corporation, the University of Tokyo ("University of Tokyo"; President: Makoto Gonokami) and AGC Asahi Glass ("AGC"; President & CEO: Takuya Shimamura) have partnered to launch a new Social Cooperation Program, "Laboratory for Material and Life Sciences for Fusion of Fluorine and Organic Chemistry," which began on April 1. The program is held in the Department of Chemistry & Biotechnology, School of Engineering at the University of Tokyo and overseen by Professor Kyoko Nozaki. In this new program, the entire university department will engage in comprehensive collaborative research in partnership with AGC. The laboratory and prep room for phase one were completed at Hongo Campus on April 21 and full-scale collaborative research is already underway.

The Social Cooperation Program established in this endeavor aims to pioneer new areas of science that will transcend fluorine chemistry, organic chemistry, and life sciences. This will be accomplished by fusing the ‘cutting-edge academic knowledge’ possessed by University of Tokyo in various fields such as materials engineering, organic chemistry, and life science, with the ‘fluorine technology’ that AGC has built-up through over 50 years of experience.
Specifically, the program will pursue the following themes:
1.    Develop manufacturing processes that are safer, more useful, and have less environmental impact by utilizing the superior reactivity of fluorine-containing structures
2.    Investigate new reactions that will form functional organic materials that leverage the unique characteristics of fluorine-containing structures
3.    Discover new medicinal active ingredients that effectively utilize the bioactivity of fluorine-containing structures

This program also aims to contribute to development in the chemical industry by using open innovation to produce useful materials and manufacturing processes with potential applications in a wide range of industrial fields.

Social Cooperation Program Overview
Program title:    Laboratory for Material and Life Sciences for Fusion of Fluorine and Organic Chemistry
Implemented department:    Department of Chemistry & Biotechnology, School of Engineering,
University of Tokyo (Hongo Campus)
Implemented period:    April 1, 2017–March 31, 2020
Purpose of research:    The research aims to develop innovative technology as well as lead to the development of pioneering chemical manufacturing processes, functional materials, and bioactive substances by fusing fluorine technology with cutting-edge academic knowledge of organic chemistry.
Partnering company:    AGC Asahi Glass
Instructors:    Kyoko Nozaki, Specially Appointed Professor
                     Midori Akiyama, Specially Appointed Assistant Professor
Partner Representative Researcher:
Takashi Okazoe, Innovative Technology Research Center, AGC Asahi Glass,
Website:    http://park.itc.u-tokyo.ac.jp/okazoe/index.html

Press Release: PDF file

 A colored-glass that functions like a whiteboard for users to write and erase ideas on the wall

A transparent glass screen for displaying presentations on the partition

Bright and open laboratory